(PEORIA, September 4, 2013) — The Central Illinois Health Information Exchange (CIHIE) has added several new members to the organization. Rochelle Community Hospital, a 16-bed Critical Access Hospital that serves Ogle, northern Lee and western DeKalb counties, is one of CIHIE’s newest members. The hospital features a Multi-Specialty Center and the following services: emergency care, diagnostic imaging, home health services, rehabilitation services, occupational health, inpatient and outpatient surgery, outpatient services, pain management, and diabetic self-management.
CIHIE received a $349,000 “White Space Grant” in March from the Illinois Office of Health Information Technology (OHIT) to accelerate connectivity of long-term care providers to exchange technology. Federal health officials refer to “White Space” healthcare providers as those who are practicing in areas that are currently underserved by health information technology infrastructure.
During 2013, the grant funds are allowing CIHIE to offer:
· Education, technical assistance and support for long-term care organizations, as they work to ready their staff and systems for participation in the exchange;
· Secure messaging services to replace faxing and mailing paper records between healthcare providers; and
· Instant, real-time access to CIHIE’s aggregate community health record – which provides clinicians with a single place to access patient records from multiple sources.
As part of the grant initiative, the following long-term care providers (named by location) have joined CIHIE:
· Abingdon: Care Center of Abingdon
· Arthur: Arthur Home
· Belvidere: Heritage Woods of Belvidere
· Bloomington: Heritage Health – Bloomington
· Chilicothe: Heritage Health – Chilicothe
· Clinton: Liberty Village of Clinton
· Decatur: Eagle Ridge of Decatur, Fair Haven, Hickory Point, Heartland Healthcare Decatur, McKinley Court, Symphony of Decatur
· Dwight: Heritage Woods of Dwight, Heritage Health – Dwight
· Galesburg: Seminary Manor
· Henry: Heartland Healthcare Henry
· Lincoln: The Christian Village, Symphony of Lincoln
· Neoga: Heartland Christian Village
· Normal: Heartland Healthcare Normal, Heritage Health – Normal
· Ottawa: Heritage Woods of Ottawa
· Pekin: John M. Evans Supportive Living, Pekin Manor,
· Peoria: Heartland Healthcare Peoria, Heartland Healthcare Riverview, Liberty Village of Peoria
· Peru: Manor Court of Peru
· Rockford: Heritage Woods of Rockford
· Springfield: Lewis Memorial Christian Village
· Streator: Heritage Health – Streator
· Urbana: Prairie Winds – Urbana
· Washington: Washington Christian Village
“Health information exchange is a secure technology that allows a provider to access a patient’s current healthcare records from multiple sources in one place. For long-term care facilities, this means they can more immediately review a patient’s hospital discharge records, along with recent records from a primary care physician and any specialists in order to establish the best plan of care, ” said Joy Duling, Executive Director of CIHIE.
CIHIE is the first regional health information exchange to be operational in the State of Illinois. Patient data first became available through the exchange in June 2012.